Minor League Ball Gameday Discussion and Links, March 3

Minor League Ball Gameday Discussion and Links, March 3^rd

Happy Sunday prospect watchers. I hope the weekend has treated you well so far. Use this thread to discuss today's spring training events as you so desire. Other notes:

***Marlon Byrd may retire if he doesn't make the New York Mets roster. He's a great Prospect Retro study since his career development was unusual and I will put him on the list. Brandon Moss will come first though. I want to get the backlog of planned retros finished up within the next ten days so I can concentrate on draft research and rookies in April, but I keep finding more topical players to add.

***My main goal this week is to finish the unified Top 100 Prospects List. Everything is subordinate to that goal.

***Max Weinstein at Beyond the Box Score looks at regression and recovery candidates for 2013.

***Yesterday I looked at the 2006 Latin American international free agent class. I will look at other years too but it is just a snapshot and dangerous to draw firm conclusions. However, broader studies have been done, including this piece by Jon Shepherd at Camden Depot in 2011.

We will look more deeply at this topic later this year, especially when we get closer to the July 2^nd IFA signing window.

***Marlins outfield prospect Christian Yelich hit a homer yesterday, giving him a 6-for-13 (.462) line this spring with a .923 SLG so far. Teammate Jake Marisnick has also been hot, 5-for-8 so far with a double and triple.

***Twins prospect Kyle Gibson is working on his slider. He gave up three hits, a walk, and a run in 1.2 innings yesterday.

***In the 2009 Shadow Draft, I selected toolsy LSU outfielder Jared Mitchell instead of Gibson for my alternate universe Twins. The White Sox prospect has hit well so far this spring, 5-for-12 with a double, a triple, and a homer, with three strikeouts and a walk. He's heading to Triple-A by all accounts but we should see him in the majors sometime this year. At this point I'd rather have Gibson, who despite his injuries and inconsistent performances can still become a strong major league starting pitcher. Mitchell looks more like a fourth outfielder, assuming his strikeout issues don't eat him alive.